Johnny was here: From airmanship to airlineship

​In this article we explore the phenomenon of airmanship in commercial passenger flights, in a context ofincreasing standardisation of procedures and technologies. Through observation studies in cockpits andinterviews we have studied pilots' practices and how they relate to the larger system of procedures andthe technical environment. We find that practices are to a large extent guided by standard operatingprocedures, and that interchangeability of pilots and aircrafts is both a prerequisite for and enabled bythis standardised regime. However, since sociotechnical systems in general and operation of aircrafts isno exception are inherently underspecified, the pilots' exercise of discretion in their context-sensitiveadaptation of the procedures and technical environments is another prerequisite for well-functioningsystems. Mastering these adaptations and recognising the absolute delimitations of adaptations isa central aspect of airmanship. Outside this space of manoeuvre for the pilots, the aircrafts are managedby what we call airlineship: The inter-organisational efforts to create predictability and safe practicesthrough de-identification and interchangeability of personnel and aircrafts. Pilots are actors in sociotechnicalsystems that are not demarcated by the cockpits. To understand pilots’ work, studies mustaccount also for the wider sociotechnical context of organisational, regulative and techno-materialstructures. The article is a contribution to the a generic attempt in the field of ergonomics to contribute withmodels and theories that portray individuals, groups, organisations and systems in ways that keep sightof the individuals in the systems and the systems in the individuals at the same time.